Nero took his people back to the shelter and let Aslanbek run back home. He could have offered the prince a portal ride but why would he? As he walked with his left arm wrapped around Crystal's shoulders and Altia on his right, he pondered.

He still thought he did the right thing, even though his first impulse was to murder the fuck out of all the leonals. But from what he heard at the Lyceum, the way Amaryllis and his parents were structuring things, he felt the diplomatic solution was the best. Killing Aslanbek would come to bite him in the ass even harder than what he did to Tyre.

On the other hand, the prince got everything he wanted. The answers to almost all of his questions. A solution to the animosity with Coriander. The truth about the fate of his brother. Even his curiosity about Nero was slaked.

But Aslanbek wouldn't be a problem. The prince would stick to his word and be true to his wager. Nero was worried he'd shown too much of his hand but he had strong backers. The Guild Master, his parents, the Dean. Even a baker's dozen of knights now.

"Are you okay?" He asked Crystal while they walked. Altia on his other side tilted his head to look at the nereid.

"I'm sorry. I spent the whole day worried about you, I was at my wits' end!" She confessed. "And seeing Aslanbek kneeling and apologizing broke down all my mental barriers. What did you do to him?"

Nero hugged her tightly. "It is fine. And remember I can teleport to the Dungeon once every hundred days?" Both women nodded. "Well, it turns out I can take whoever is touching along with me. I don't know if it needs to be a willing target or not, but I asked Aslanbek twice if he wanted to see his brother."

Crystal shuddered at the mere mention of the shameful prince.

"Then he rampaged. I dove in the lake and hid in a shelter. Then I dug a tunnel underneath the Dungeon and used that Skill to block respawns. I had a lot of time at hand, so I designed a gadget to protect me from magic. I also used the same build I had to shield me from your [Charm] spell. Aslanbek only has spells and I kept my distance. Once he got tired, we wagered a duel. I won."

"It is impressive," Sir Chalkalon said from behind them. "You defeated a sixth-tier prince. I have no worries leaving Her Hi... Crystal with you."

"Sir Chalkalon, you don't have to escort me to the door. You are to camp in the ocean behind us. Moira and Hefalina can go bivouac with you if they so wish," Crystal ordered with her princess' voice. "I'm exhausted and I explained to you people here is wary of you. Go now."

Chalkalon slammed a fist to his chest. "As you command. Move!" He ordered the knights away.

"I'm not sleeping," Altia quipped. "I want the full story."

"Me too!" Crystal chirped. "I was just sending these stubborn knights away."

"Me three!" Moira added from behind them.

"I guess everyone wants to hear," Nero said, looking around at the nine curious faces nodding and staring at him.

He told the whole story from the moment the first knight from Coriander showed his face through the portal. In the end, Nero sighed.

"I just felt it was right to try and get Aslanbek's favor and oath instead of a corpse," He explained. "And I was thinking of dozens of things at the same time. I was even worried that the knights would just tie up Crystal, bust the portal, and run away with her."

"Have faith!" Crystal pouted and crossed her arms. "But you did right. Tyre deserved a thousand deaths. Aslanbek is at a fault, but for negligence. It is different. Even if you didn't mean to befriend him, it was the best diplomatic solution."

She stood up. "But! This won't come out cheap for them. We are demanding reparations, expensive ones," Crystal declared, her princess persona coming to the fore after months of suppression. At their puzzled faces, she explained. "By 'we', I mean our family. Not Coriander. They should be glad they're getting twelve knights back. Moira and Hefalina can go back if they want too."

"No," Moira said. "If you allow, we wish to serve you even if you renounced your title," She declared with Hefalina nodding next to her.

Rodther grinned.

"I'm grateful for your loyalty," Crystal cooed. "Tomorrow, we are going to the capital and we will gather the Guild Master and the Dean. Then we will demand an audience with the King and Aslanbek. We shall dot all the letters that need a dot, and cross all the shall be crossed."

"What about the villagers?" Nero asked, looking seriously at Crystal. He didn't need to say which villagers.

She looked away, her previous enthusiasm gone. "There were two others with them. Scouts and assassins not from my own sworn, 'specialists' sent to gather intelligence. They went ahead and 'interrogated' the villagers. It is all in Calder's documents. Forgeries. They thought I was being tortured. Lies were woven by a faction of nobles interested in conquest. And my... no, the Royal Family of Coriander ate straight from their hands."

"And?" Nero pressed.

"They fought and argued. Sir Chalkalon strongly disagreed with their methods, but they just shrugged, split from the group, and went on their own. We don't know where they are now."

"They could be anywhere then. Even here..." Nero turned around and spent stamina to use the Skill from his [Rogue] build to sense presences. In a range of four hundred and thirty-six yards around him, there was nobody with stealth lower than nine hundred and fifty-two. His own, for reference, would be seven hundred and forty with all the buffs. A bit of paranoia made him use the Skill a few more times, all of them came up negative.

"Reparations..." Altia mused. "What are we demanding?"

"First, recognition of what Tyre did to me," Crystal said, adamant. "An official apology is the least they can do. Second, recognition of Nero's bravery and valor in the war!" At Nero's dismay, she smiled and held his shoulder. "People in high echelons are already aware of your name if Aslanbek sent as many inquiries around as I think he did. Staying in the shadows now will be more harmful to you in no time. It is better to stand in the spotlight, get recognition, and a show of strength and support. If you have a trifecta of the Guild, Lyceum, and the Crown Prince backing you, anyone trying to do anything to you or us will think thrice before striking. Well, as I was saying, Third we will demand they make amends with Coriander. One of their princes did kidnap a princess, after all. We might need to go there..." She trailed off with a shudder.

"It will be okay," Nero caressed her hair to reassure her. "We are too well backed to be hurt, you said it."

"Yes, we are. And if they try to mess with us, you can teach them the might of the level zero," Altia joked.

"There's another thing. We need to make sure the King doesn't look weak," Rhynne offered. "What about those cards you got?"

"Yes, the plan was always to gift them to the King anyway," Nero said. "But I also want him to give me the rights to all the items I gathered from whoever died in that castle and battlefield I picked up."

And worded like that, the quartermaster's stash was included. Nero wanted to know what was inside badly.

"That is not uncommon," Crystal said. "If you release Aslanbek from his debt and gift the cards, we can get our demands and it will seem like the King is being generous to us instead of coerced."

"One more thing," Nero added. "I want him to grant Fotia, Knazer, and Rodther amnesty. This way they aren't obliged to stay with us, although they are valuable team members."

"I'm sticking with you, boss," Rodther raised a hand immediately. "Seriously, you do the craziest stuff. And if Moira is staying, I am too."

"We might stay with our people if we can return home," Knazer declared. "We can work as guardians and delve to pay for our family's expenses. The price of our equipment..."

Nero raised a hand. "It's yours. Seriously, yesterday we farmed almost thirty-three million Essence in crystals alone, and almost a thousand cards. I will split two million Essence into eight parts, two hundred and fifty thousand to each one of you. That's how much Essence we would've gained if I didn't trap the goblins to kill myself."

"On a good delve at a rank-XXX Dungeon," Byron added. "Rhynne and I might bring back five hundred thousand each in crystals. You kids are not even level thirty."

"And trust me, a rank-XXX Dungeon is deadly dangerous for us."

Altia stifled a yawn but it triggered sympathetic reactions from everyone, including Nero.

"I think it is time to call it a day. Night. Early morning, whatever. To bed, everyone." Byron declared.

Aslanbek ran back to the capital with his knights. He felt as if what happened in that Dungeon was a dream, a hallucination. He took a deep breath, ran his tongue through his teeth, and found something stuck. He used a claw to take it off and looked. A grain of wheat!

Aslanbek stopped and let out a burst of raucous laughter.

"Is everything alright, sir?" Botolf asked.

Aslanbek's guffaws dimmed to chuckles. He cleared his throat and looked around. "Yes. No. For the first time in my life, I have no idea. I found what I was looking for, though it wasn't what I wanted to find."

The crown prince looked at his trusted Captain, thirty years his senior. Assigned to him at birth, Botolf was the one that trained and groomed him. A cat-kin Aslanbek respected.

"Tell me, Sir Botolf. Is there shame in acknowledging one's weaknesses?"

Botolf didn't hesitate to answer. "No, sir. Without knowing one's weakness, one's growth will be stunted."

The other knights watched in silence. They wouldn't dare to talk back to the prince less his wrath fall on them.

"We came here so I could learn that truth. Tell me, Botolf, what do you think of my behavior these last few months?"

Botolf avoided the prince's piercing gaze for a moment. "Your Highness was facing great duress. All our neighbors were poised to strike at us like vultures. You lost a brother. Understandably, anyone would be upset."

"Shouldn't a Crown Prince be better than that?" Aslanbek asked his puzzled Captain.

"Permission to speak freely, Your Royal Highness?" Botolf saluted.

"Granted," Aslanbek beckoned him with a grin.

"Even a King is only a person, young Aslanbek. There is a proverb by an old sage. 'A King rules the country alone. A King without a country is alone. A King alone rules no country'. If I remember correctly."

Aslanbek smiled. "Since we are speaking candidly to one another, Botolf, tell me. Is this country 'going to shit', as I heard someone say?"

Botolf snorted. "Maybe, maybe not. What I hope is that you do something to avoid that fate, milord. Your brother did well repelling the invaders from the west even though it cost his life. Now it is your turn to do something."

Aslanbek took a medal from his storage and showed it to Botolf. "See this?"

"An [Honor Badge]. A token we can only give freely," He answered almost mechanically. "We all have the same card."

"This is Mayleefa's badge. Given on his death kneel to Nero. It came to me along with a letter from my brother Tyre, co-signed by all his knights. That young man was the key to our victory against Coriander. He was the reason we only had twelve knights walking on our land instead of an entire army and the vultures that were camping at our borders."

Botolf exhaled deeply. "And I'm led to believe he was the reason we didn't have to fight those twelve knights. Will they be a problem?"

Aslanbek shook his head. "I don't think so. Those were Princess Serena's personal knights. Probably sent here to rescue her. She doesn't want to go home, though."

"They called each other siblings," Botolf remarked. "I agree with you, Your Highness. She seemed to have them under control."

"Coriander lied to them, I'm certain of it," Aslanbek speculated. "You saw her. Do you think she warranted such an effort to 'rescue' her? Do you think she wanted to be rescued?"

"Given the circumstances, no, I don't. Sir, can I ask you where you went?"

"Remember he asked me if I wanted to go see Tyre? He took me there. A Dungeon. It was a humbling experience. Surreal. I wouldn't believe it happened if it weren't for this grain of wheat I found on my teeth."

"There was wheat beyond those portals he opened. Wheat as far as the eye could see. Where did that wheat come from?"

Aslanbek laughed at the absurd of the thought. "He made it. That wheat is in another place. As a Dungeon, it is nowhere. He can open portals to those places. You saw him bringing his whole family with him."

"One of our men tried to take wheat from these portals," Botolf reported. "It vanished when he came back, just like a Dungeon. What happened while you were there with him?"

Aslanbek looked up at the stars. With a sigh, he confessed. "I fought him, Botolf. He challenged me to a duel and I lost. Blinded by my pride and rage, I wagered I'd be his servant for a year and a day. Now I must buy back my freedom. Honor demands it. It was my loss."

The old cat-kin knight put a hand on the prince's shoulder. "No. Look in my eyes, young prince. Did you fight with honor?"

"Yes, old friend," Aslanbek nodded.

"Then winning or losing is inconsequential. What I saw, what I heard from you, and what Mayleefa saw and witnessed with his own eyes and ears says that boy is worthy. This," Botolf pointed at the badge clutched on Aslanbek's paw, "Is a message from Mayleefa. He is doing the kingdom a service even after death. Mayleefa is telling us that boy is worthy. That we should make an ally out of that boy, instead of an enemy. I saw no hostility in his eyes. I saw caution, courage, intelligence. He was stealthed when you came out of that portal. He defeated you. What does it mean?"

Aslanbek closed his eyes. It felt as if he was a cub trying to learn how to wield a wooden sword with Botolf drilling discipline into him again.

"It means he could kill me and leave the Dungeon whenever he wanted," Aslanbek admitted.

He also came to believe Nero manipulated the respawn rate somehow. He did say the Dungeon was his domain.

"And yet he didn't. Think about that, prince. Think while we run back home. That Adventurer Nero? He gave you the greatest gift of all."

Botolf patted Aslanbek's shoulder and ran ahead. Aslanbek and the other knights ran after him and soon caught up. Once he was running side-by-side with his mentor, the prince had to ask.

"What gift?"

"Wisdom," Botolf grinned. "That same sage once said, 'There is no shame in defeat so long the spirit is unconquered', milord."